Friday, February 24, 2012

Last night (well technically early this morning) the Rapids lost 2-1 to Yokohama FC of the Japanese 2nd division. A 10 minute spell in the second half saw Colorado give up two goals and they couldn't climb back out of the hole. The starting XI for the burgundy boys (seen above):

Cascio - Cummings - Mullan

Larentowicz - Castrillon - Mastroeni

Zapata - Moor - Wynne - Kimura

Pickens

With the exception of the injured Casey I think that's pretty close to our starting XI right now. Reports from the game is that new signing Luis Zapata was man of the match for the Rapids and they the team generated a number of good chances but couldn't finish. They finally got a goal from a Zapata corner kick that Moor headed home. The subs were Amarikwa for Cascio right after the first Yokohama goal in the 57th minute, Thompson for Mullan after the 2nd Yokohama goal in the 64th minute, and Janniere for Mastroeni late. Thompson got a straight red in the last few minutes for an elbow to the head. It sounds like it was an ill-advised tough challenge but Thompson wasn't intentionally striking the player. Right before the end of the game Colorado had a chance to tie it and force it to penalties but Castrillon's close-range header went wide.

Melbourne lost to Busan i'Park 1-0 in penalties after a scoreless game, so Colorado will face Melbourne's youth in the 3rd place game tomorrow. Game time is 8pm MST and it will be streamed live on ESPN3.com. I expect we'll also see a number of our young players in this game.